LO1: Business Report - Sumo Digital

Sumo Digital – Business Report

Company Structure:

Sumo Digital is an independent game development company that was set up in 2003 after the closure of Infogrames Studios Sheffield, more commonly referred to as Gremlin Interactive. The company was formed around 4 former members of Gremlin Interactive: Carl Cavers, Paul Porter, Darren Mills and James North-Hearn. At current, Sumo Digital has employed more than 270 development staff who were previous employees of Infogrames and Gremlin.

In August 17^th 2007, Sumo Digital was acquired by Foundation 9 Entertainment which has a hold on several independent game development studios. 7 years later however, Sumo Digital managed to acquire their independence from Foundation 9 Entertainment.

Platforms and Development:- 

Sumo Digital uses the following platforms for game development:-

-         - Xbox*

-         -  PlayStation 2*

-         -  PlayStation Portable (PSP)*

-         -  Windows

-         -  Xbox 360

-         -  PlayStation 3

-         -  PlayStation Vita

-         -  Wii

-         -  Wii U

-         -  Nintendo DS/3DS

-         - iOS/Android/BlackBerry

-         - Xbox One

-         -  PlayStation 4

*Xbox, Playstation 2 and the PSP game development are usually discontinued to compensate for the new generation platforms.

Development will consist of the production team which branch off into several roles such as the Senior Art Lead, the Head Code and the Quality Assurance team member etc.

Game Types:

Sumo is quite well known for the works such as OutRun 2, Virtua Tennis franchise, a series of racing games and a list of sports oriented games. However, their most recognized work is between Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, their work on LittleBigPlanet 2 and Forza Horizon 2. Their success started more clearly when Sega confronted Sumo in porting the OutRun game from arcade on to the Xbox. This was the kickstart for their future game developments as Sega returned to them for future game developments, producing more successful release titles such as the development of LittleBigPlanet 2 and 3. Sumo Digital has worked with other companies such as Sega, THQ, Ubisoft, Disney and Konami. Each of these companies have requested development from Sumo Digital, the most prominent being Sega.

Regulatory Bodies:

Sumo Digital follows the European regulations for media: PEGI, Pan European Game Information which handles the standards for how a form of media will be labelled for which audience it should only be for. As far as Sumo Digital games go in terms of rating, only 1 has reached an 18+ rating due to violent nature of the original content (Dead Space: Ignition) but for the rest of the games they have produced, it is generally within the 3+ to 12+ age ratings as they are mostly child friendly and has quite a family friendly roster of games, especially LittleBigPlanet 2 and 3, the Sonic & Sega games and Disney Infinity 3.0.

Development Software:

The development software that Sumo Digital has used before includes the Drivatar Engine for Forza Horizon. They may use 3D modelling software such as Autodesk Maya and texturing programs such as Photoshop series or Filter Forge.